CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The SpaceX Dragon capsule returned to Earth yesterday with a full science
load from the International Space Station — and a bunch of well-used children’s Legos.

The privately owned cargo ship splashed down in the Pacific right on target, 250 miles off the
coast of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula, five hours after leaving the orbiting lab.The California-based
SpaceX confirmed the Dragon’s safe arrival via Twitter.

The capsule brought back more than 1 ton of science experiments and old station equipment, as
well as 13 sets of Lego building blocks that were used by space-station crews over the past couple
of years to teach children about science.

It’s the only supply ship capable of two-way delivery. With the space shuttles retired, NASA is
paying SpaceX more than $1 billion for a dozen resupply missions.

The unmanned capsule will be shipped to Los Angeles — arriving tonight — and then trucked to
Texas for unloading.

The Dragon used old-NASA-style parachutes to plop into the ocean.

SpaceX launched the capsule from Cape Canaveral at the beginning of March. Mechanical trouble
delayed the capsule’s arrival at the space station by a day. SpaceX flight controllers at company
headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., managed to fix the problem within hours.

Bad weather at mission’s end in the Pacific recovery zone kept it in orbit an extra day.